Pierre Engvall About to Breakout for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Pierre Engvall Is the most mysterious player on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He skates well, he’s got a hard shot, he’s an absolute monster at 6’5 and 215lbs.  He’s a good passer, he is defensively responsible.  He looks good on both special teams units.  Why isn’t he leading the Toronto Maple Leafs in scoring?

A 7th round pick, Engvall – a toolsy project with a ton of upside and a low chance of making it – was a prototypical Kyle Dubas pick years before Kyle Dubas was even a Leafs employee.  The pre-Dubas Leafs have a reputation for going after low-risk grinders with late picks, but Engvall was a real swing at the fences and it might still pay off.

It might actually be paying off right now if not for some rather unlucky results.  Pierre Engval has one goal and four points in 12 games.  But – outside of the production – has really played well.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Pierre Engvall

The first thing to know about Pierre Engvall is that he is effective even if he doesn’t score points.   His natural abilities may leave you wanting more, but don’t let that hide what he does well.

Puck possession: With Engvall on the ice, the Leafs possess the puck 54% of the time. That is a very good number, but in context it’s even better: Engvall has started just 20% of his shifts in the offensive zone, spending a good portion of his season to date playing left wing with Ondrej Kase and David Kampf (his move to the fourth line was clearly more about trying to get Nick Ritchie going, rather than any comment on Engvall’s play).  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

With Engvall on the ice, with some fairly extreme usage, the Toronto Maple Leafs get 54% of the shots, 58% scoring chances, 53% of the dangerous chances, and 55% expected goals.

That is extremely good.  I know the team needs to get Ritchie going, but I think Engvall is a bigger part of the line than he gets credit for.  Kampf’s expected goals go from 55% with Engvall to 47% without him.

On the offensive side, Engvall definitely leaves you wanting more, but obviously part of the problem is that he doesn’t exactly start many shifts in the offensive zone.

He is, however, averaging 9 shots per 60 minutes of 5v5 ice time, only slightly below what Tavares and Nylander are getting.  His 7.9 individual scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5v5 ice time rank him just below Marner and just ahead of Kerfoot.

All this means is that Engvall is likely to start scoring sooner than later.  He has actually scored at just below a 2nd line rate for his entire career, and so it’s reasonable to think that given his obvious improvement in his time as a Leaf, and his current strong play, and his solid defense, that he could end up being a very good top six option for the Leafs eventually.

Right now it’s important to remember that Envall’s 5v5 personal shooting percentage is zero percent, and that his on-ice shooting percentage is under 4%.   These kinds of goal suppressing percentages are just bud luck.  You can’t judge Engvall on his lack of scoring.

When he is on the ice, whatever it is he does, he keeps the puck moving in the right direction, and his team always has the puck.  He provides good defense, and he creates a lot more offense than you’d suspect, given the counting totals and the role he is asked to play.

For whatever reason, the coach always demotes and benches him – maybe because he is trying to unlock the star player within – but this leads to fans drastically underrating him.  Pierre Engvall has earned his role on the Kampf-Kase line, and the Leafs should continue rolling him on out the second power-play unit too.

He’s only 25 and his potential is still very high.